&What If…?& has been a nice change of pace for the more curious group of Marvel fans since its first episode a few weeks ago. The series explores powerful new realties and revelations much in the same vein that the What If…?& comic books have given us since the series debut in February of 1977. Exploration of different theories and timelines has been a favorite thing of all comic fans to discuss, explore and even argue about for probably longer. Keeping in that same proud tradition, I want to lay the groundwork for a new MCU Theory: Is Vision’s death an absolute point in time?
&What If…?& gave us an emotional and powerful episode two weeks ago as we explored a universe where Doctor Stephen Strange loses his heart instead of his hands. The episode proposed a universe where Dr. Strange and Christine Palmer explored their personal relationship more, so much so that Dr. Strange was shown to be deeply in love with Palmer, something that isn’t a far cry from what we witnessed in Doctor Strange in 2016.&
Unlike what we witnessed however, the accident that took Dr. Strange’s hands in the 2016 film took the life of his lover, Dr. Christine Palmer instead. The episode gave us a few tasty nuggets along the journey that would ultimately see Dr. Strange destroy that entire universe in his attempt to bring back Dr. Palmer &including another glimpse of the monster we saw in &What If…Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?&, the revelation that Dr. Strange can sense The Watcher, &and perhaps the episodes most important notion, an absolute point in time.&
&In 2016’s &Doctor Strange& we saw &Dr. Christine Palmer live throughout the film. She didn’t die. This is important because in the timeline that we see in the &What If…?& series she is killed. Not only is she killed, she is killed over and over when Strange tries to use the time stone to bring her back when he is warned that her death is an absolute point in time. Fast forward to the new episode, &What If…Zombies?&. If you have not seen the new episode, massive spoilers below.
In a depiction of the popular Marvel Zombies comic arc, the newest episode explores a zombie apocalypse that occurs at the same time of the events of &Avengers: Infinity War& and we pick up shortly after the massacre on the Asgardian refugee ship when Heimdall sends Bruce Banner to Earth to warn the others of the impending doom of Thanos. Banner soon discovers the world is already doomed from a zombie plague brought back by Hope Van Dyne from the Quantum Realm.
We follow the likes of Spider Man, Hope, Banner, and Black Panther only to discover that a zombified version of Wanda is the ultimate villain to face off against. This is where we get to the crux of my theory. We discover Vision has been harboring a zombie Wanda, or Wanzie (a term I made up. I’m very proud), and feeding her. Our heroes are able to prove to Vision that he has gone about things incorrectly and to atone, he rips the Soul Stone from his head, which can present a cure for the virus. &The act kills him.
So far in the MCU, we have explored two realities where Vision dies: the original for Earth-19999 and now the zombie timeline. They both occur at the same time in the overall multiverse as well. This does beg the question, especially so shortly after we were introduced to the concept of absolute points in time, is Vision’s demise perhaps a universal absolute point in time? It wouldn’t be the first time Marvel has introduced a concept and thrown us right into the mix with it, just see all of &Loki&. The question then becomes what, if anything, is so special about Vision’s death? In the original timeline, his death was undone at the hands of Thanos using the time stone only to be killed again, enabling Thanos to complete the gauntlet and wipe out half of all life in the universe.
In the zombie episode, his death once again seemed to be in vein as he was doing it to buy our heroes more time to escape from Wanzie, only to then lose Bucky as well when Wanzie breaks free of the &warehouse that Vision drops on her. Could Vision just be destined to die in vain for the sake of the multiverse? With any luck this issue will be explored in further &What If…?& episodes if not this season, than next.
For now, it seems like a plausible bet that Vision, when it comes to the multiverse, is destined to die a sad, meaningless death, which would only extend to deepen the sad story from Wanda’s perspective. She has lost so much, her brother, her family, her bubble reality, her great love in the original Vision, wouldn’t it just be heartbreaking to know that no matter what happens, no matter what the circumstances, no matter the cost, that Wanda is meant &to experiences massive sadness? What do you think? Is Visions death a type of Universal Absolute Point in time?